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Open access to integrated pharmacological data

Currently, pharmaceutical companies assemble their own in-house databases of pharmacological and physicochemical data resources. Open PHACTS integrates data from multiple publicly-available databases, giving you access to a vast linked data resource through a stable, integrated infrastructure.

This allows researchers to build better analysis pipelines — and gives researchers in academia and smaller companies unprecedented access to pharmacological data resources.

What do we mean by “linked data”?

Pharmacological entities — compounds, target pathways, etc. — each have multiple different identifiers used by different data providers. This makes finding information about an entity a complicated, fragmented process. For example, Sorafenib has the following identifiers:

DrugBank: DB00398
ChemSpider: 187440
ChEBI: 50924
ChEMBL: CHEMBL1336
FDA: ucm376547

In fact, Sorafenib has over 30 of these identifiers, each linking to a different data provider with different bits of information about Sorafenib’s properties and actions.

The Open PHACTS Discovery Platform integrates data associated with each identifier, so that you can browse and query interoperable data about Sorafenib from multiple sources in one place. This allows you to drastically increase the efficiency of your existing research and analysis workflows.

What sort of questions can Open PHACTS answer?

The potential of Open PHACTS to facilitate research is vast. Our example Workflows demonstrate some of the questions that Open PHACTS can help answer for you as a researcher.

We also provide access to integrated data via the Open PHACTS Explorer and various other Applications for browsing and querying data.

11th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry Engineering of Biopharmaceuticals Oegstgeest (near Leiden), The Netherlands – September 27-30, 2015

This intensive course is intended for scientists with interests in the field of peptide and protein engineering covering topics around synthetic peptides, engineered proteins and therapeutic antibodies.

The number of participants will be limited to 35 to assure the possibility for in-depth discussions. The presentations and tutorials will be given by academic and industrial experts and will cover broad historical perspectives and in depth details of important engineering technologies. The presenters will also include interesting applications as well as future aspects in an informal approach aiming for high level of interaction of the participants.

Course outline

The development of future biopharmaceuticals will depend on research at the interfaces between several scientific disciplines including organic chemistry, physical chemistry, biophysics, protein chemistry and molecular biology. The interplay between these fields will have a key role for improving our molecular understanding of peptides and proteins and thus for developing future drug candidates. This course will focus on strategies on how to design and engineer biopharmaceuticals and will provide participants with insight to this important field of bioscience, which are applicable in academic and pharmaceutical contexts. The course will cover several fundamental aspects of peptide chemistry methodologies, selective modifications of proteins, ligation chemistries and regioselective coupling reactions. The biophysical characterization of peptide and proteins will be integrated in the lectures. The course will also cover various methods of semi-synthetic and synthetic modifications of proteins with focus on the application to drug discovery. Finally the course will give an insight to therapeutic antibodiesincluding screening, optimization an engineering aspects.

Thus, various issues of development of biopharmaceuticals as well as discussions of different strategies to improve peptide and protein properties to biopharmaceuticals will be the primary focus of the course.

Register before the deadline of June 22!

Interested participants are asked to pre-register for the course. A final registration confirmation will be sent after the pre-registration deadline of June 22. In case of an insufficient number of participants, EFMC reserves the right to cancel the course.

Comments of previous EFMC Short Course Participants

“Very nice set-up. Limited number of participants. Excellent opportunity to speak to peers about medchem issues and others.”
“The availability of the speakers during the sessions and exercises was a plus. The tutors were very experienced, motivated and motivating, and very good in communication.”
“Having the whole meeting ‘under one roof’ is appreciated. The castle is a very nice and comfortable location to organise an event such as the Short Course.”
“The speakers of the Engineering of Biopharmaceuticals Course (Spring 2014) were of high quality and well prepared.”

Course Organiser
Jesper LAU (Novo Nordisk, Denmark)

Local Organiser
Henk TIMMERMAN (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Registration fee
€1.675 – including accommodation, breakfast, coffee breaks, lunches and dinners during the 3 days of the course.

More information on registration can be found on www.efmcshortcourses.org

14th International Symposium on Hyphenated Techniques in Chromatography and Separation Technology (HTC-14) Ghent, Belgium – January 27-29, 2016

After a successful 13th edition of our conference on Hyphenated Techniques in Chromatography and Separation Technology, we are happy to announce the opening of HTC-14 from January 27th until 29th, 2016. Contrary to previous editions, we have decided to move the conference to Ghent. It will be held in the conference centre “Het Pand” in the historical heart of the city.

As you might know from previous editions, the HTC conference remains your premier platform for state-of-the-art developments in hyphenated separation techniques. Presentations by internationally renowned experts both from industry and academia combined with specific Ph.D. sessions are the ideal ingredients for a fruitful journey through the invigorating landscape of separation technology.

As before, HTC-14 will cover all fundamental aspects, instrumental developments and applications of hyphenated chromatographic techniques. These include hyphenation between chromatography and (new) detection systems, multi-column (multi-dimensional) chromatography, and the coupling between sample preparation and separation techniques. Many aspects of chromatography are addressed, including automation and robotization, miniaturization and microfabricated analytical devices, high-pressure and high-temperature LC.

Main topics include:

1.   Fundamental Strategies for the Hyphenation of Contemporary Chromatographic and other Separation Techniques
with Sample Preparation and Advanced Detection Systems
2.   Emerging Detection Strategies Compatible with Current Separation Techniques
3.   The Marriage of Hyphenated Techniques with Process Analytical Technology
4.   Novel Multi-Dimensional Separation Techniques
5.   Biological Sample Preparation for Clinical and Forensic Applications (RSC)
6.   Hyphenated Separations for Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutical Analysis (RSC)
7.   Hyphenation in Quantitative Chromatography (RSC)
8.   Relevance in Food Science, including the Analysis of Contaminants and Residues
9.   Green Chromatography including Environmental Science
10. Clinical and/or Forensic Applications
11. Combination with Chemometrics and Data-analysis
12. Applications in the Chemical and Petrochemical Industry
13. Hyphenated Techniques for Natural Products, Flavours and Fragrance Analysis
14. Applicability in “Omics” (Metabolomics, Proteomics, Lipidomics, …)
15. Hyphenated Techniques and Polymer Analysis

http://www.htc-conference.com/

FMC-ASMC’15 – 6th EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry

in combination with the

13th Annual Meeting of the Medicinal Chemistry Section of the Israel Chemical Society

Rehovot, Israel – November 15-18, 2015

The European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) and ChemBridge Corporation have been organising since 2004 the successful series of the International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry. The first edition was held in Moscow, followed by St. Petersburg in 2007 and 2011, Kiev in 2009 and again Moscow in 2013.

The 6th EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ASMC’15) is scheduled for November 15-18, 2015 and will be held at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, in combination with the 13th Annual Meeting of the Medicinal Chemistry Section of the Israel Chemical Society.

This symposium will bring together chemists from industry, academia and start-up companies from around the world and is centered on the most recent advances in new synthetic methodologies, total synthesis, organometallic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, drug discovery and development leading to new or improved methods for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals.

Beyond key lectures in synthetic and catalytic chemistry, as well as recent case studies in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, the symposium aims at extending the range from ‘small molecules’ to ‘large molecules’ including carbohydrates, natural products, novel protein scaffolds and genes; it is expected to attract experts in synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, total synthesis, catalysis, drug discovery, molecular imaging, and chemical development.

We strongly encourage young scientists, particularly graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, to attend this symposium!

http://www.efmc-asmc2015.org/

Cancer Metabolism Conference November 16-17, 2015, San Francisco, CA

We invite you to the Cancer Metabolism Conference, November 16-17, 2015 in San Francisco, CA. Though the field of cancer metabolism has existed for years, only recently have researchers begun to uncover the biological nature of metabolic changes in cancer cells. Research has been aimed at inhibiting key enzymes in cancer cell-specific metabolic pathways as therapeutic targets.

The conference program will cover various research areas in the field, such as autophagy, metabolism and redox, and target validation, but all underpin the question: Is it possible to target cancer metabolism for cancer therapy? Presentations will focus on basic biology research and applications in the clinic, and highlight programs that are in the drug discovery phase.
Sessions include:
I. Mitochondrial Metabolism
II. Metabolic Regulation of Epigenetics
III. Metabolic Stress and Cancer Metabolism
IV. Cancer Metabolism In Vivo
V. Redox Reaction in Metabolism
VI. Therapeutic Targets in Cancer Cell Metabolism

This meeting seeks to provide a balanced and informative perspective on the field of cancer metabolism by bringing together speakers and attendees from both academia and industry.

https://www.gtcbio.com/conferences/cancer-metabolism-overview